This week, at a special UN conference on climate change in New York, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this regarding efforts to mitigate global warming, "Ultimately, we must develop and bring to market new energy technologies that transcend the current system of fossil fuels, carbon emissions and economic activity. Put simply, the world needs a technological revolution."
This week, at a special UN conference on climate change in New York, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this regarding efforts to mitigate global warming, "Ultimately, we must develop and bring to market new energy technologies that transcend the current system of fossil fuels, carbon emissions and economic activity. Put simply, the world needs a technological revolution."
The Secretary did not say whether the US would lead the revolution or join the fight started by other nations. She also did not hint as to which new energy technologies would be at the root of the uprising.
If an energy revolution comes, solar energy - photovoltaic or thermal - will be a major participant. The Sun already keeps us alive. We need to take advantage of it more than we do.
Within the solar industry itself a revolution is needed. Costs need to come down. Efficiency needs to improve. And the third leg of solar energy - energy storage - needs to dramatically improve for lower costs. Energy storage allows grid-free installations, the real desire for potential solar energy consumers.
Fortunately solar has been steadily improving on all fronts and closing in on the the day when it will be ready to do battle against entrenched fossil fuels.
Solar photovoltaic products are getting prettier, more appealing for residential rooftop installations.
The new Andalay solar module from Akkeena Solar is a good example. The all-black panels look more like a skylight than a solar panel. All the wiring is built in, as is the racking. The panels lie nearly flush with the rooftop.
Solar products are getting easier to install.
A self-contained solar panel with battery back-up from Carmanah is available for easy plug-and-play installation. Its EverGEN(tm) line of solar engines is available for powering specific devices such as remote exterior lighting.
Packaged solar products are available for targeted use.
Envision Solar would like to see tens of thousands of their Solar Trees(tm) planted in the vast acreage of parking lots across the US. The solar-panel-covered trees could send power to the grid or recharge electric or plug-in hybrid cars parked beneath them.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is testing a Solar Tree as a recharger for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The one trunk (single post) tree is rated at 10 kilowatts, has 20 Kyocera modules and is grid-connected. Solar power that is generated and not used to charge a vehicle, can be sent to the power grid.
New, cutting edge, innovative solar technologies are getting closer to mass production and ready for introduction in the marketplace.
Prism Solar has been developing its Holographic Planar Concentrator (HPC) technology that will allow solar panels to be built with fewer solar cells for reduced cost as well as eek more power out each cell. The HPC technology can focus light onto the cells, spectrally select which portion of the light spectrum is desired for optimum performance, and direct sunlight to the backside of bifacial solar cells for additional solar power output.
Prism’s technology will move closer to commercialization with a $548,000 product development contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to build and sell bifacial photovoltaic (PV) modules that incorporate the HPC technology.
The company already has an agreement Atlantis Energy Systems of Poughkeepsie, New York to build the modules.
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Well known companies in corporate America are getting involved with solar energy in a big way.
After building a 580-kilowatt solar system in 2006, Costco is moving ahead with plans to build four more roof top solar systems on its big box stores. At about 600 kilowatts each, the combined capacity is nearly 2.4 megawatts. Nearly 2000 modules from Schott Solar will be installed at each location using a non-penetrating (and patent-pending) solar racking system. Permacity is the installer of the projects.
Outdoing Costco by a long shot will be department store chain Kohl’s. By flipping the switch on its first roof top solar system the company has rolled out plans to build a whopping 25 megawatts of solar power spread out between 63 of 80 Kohl’s California locations.
All together the Kohl’s solar program will represent approximately 15 percent of California’s photovoltaic installations to date. At 25 MW the Kohl’s solar systems will be larger than those of the top five largest completed photovoltaic systems in the United States combined.
More than 138,000 solar panels are expected to be used when Kohl’s solar installations are complete in 2008.
The systems are being built under an agreement with SunEdison. Under the agreement, SunEdison will manage the rooftop solar energy systems in exchange for Kohl’s commitment to purchase energy from them.
Large ground-mounted solar photovoltaic systems are becoming ever more common.
In Salamanca, Spain the 13.8 megawatt Planta Solar de Salamanca has been switched on. It incorporates about 70,000 Kyocera PV modules in three separate arrays on a 36-hectare (89-acre) site. It’s the largest PV system ever created using Kyocera PV modules exclusively. It’s also one of the largest PV systems in the world.
The company hopes large-scale photovoltaic systems become as popular in the US as they are in Europe. Large scale, grid connected solar systems allow consumers to buy solar power when rooftop solar systems may be impossible.
While solar photovoltaic technologies - sunlight-directly-to-electricity - grabs the most attention, solar thermal power generation has a far greater, planet-wide, total electric output.
Now, with an announcement from FPL Group, there will be even more. Within a 2.4 billion investment program the company will spend up to $1.5 billion in new solar thermal generating facilities in Florida and California over the next seven years, starting with a project with Florida Power & Light (FPL) in Florida.
That project will begin as 10 megawatts then expand to a full 300 megawatts with later regulatory approvals and the meeting of cost and technical specifications by the technology provider Ausra, Inc.
(The remaining $900 million will be for consumer education towards renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gases as well as building a smart network which will allow customers to view their energy consumption online every day, in real-time.
The announcement was made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative Conference in New York.
Secretary Rice is now heading the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change at the State Department.
